WSU VANCOUVER OFFERS TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM AND EXHIBIT, "BOARDING SCHOOLS
GENERATIONS"
VANCOUVER, Wash. - The Department of history and the College of Liberal
Arts at Washington State University Vancouver will present a two-day
symposium, "Boarding Schools Generations," from 7 - 9 p.m. March 30 - 31
in the Administration building, room 110. The symposium will focus on
personal and family stories and the impact of federal boarding schools
on the history and culture of American Indian peoples in the Northwest.
The symposium is free and open to the public.
Brenda J. Child, head of the Department of American Indian Studies at
the University of Minnesota and an enrolled member of the Red Lake
Ojibwe, will give the keynote address on March 30. Child is an
internationally known scholar and the author of two books that look at
the boarding school experience through the eyes of Indian students and
their families: "Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families,
1900-1940" and "Away From Home."
Following her lecture, Child will join a panel of academic experts
including Jeff Osler, University of Oregon; Robbie Paul, (Nez Perce)
Washington State University Spokane; and Robert McCoy, WSU Pullman.
Paul, McCoy and Steve Fountain, WSU Vancouver, the panel's moderator,
are affiliates of the WSU Plateau Center for American Indian Studies.
The multidisciplinary panel will look at Indian boarding schools through
the lenses of history, health, federal Indian policy and American Indian
studies.
The following evening, March 31, features introductory testimonies by
four tribal elders speaking personally about their own families' varied
boarding school experiences, including those at Chemawa Indian School in
Salem, Ore. The remainder of the evening will be a forum, moderated by
Paul, for other members of the regional American Indian community to
share their personal and family boarding school stories-past and
present.
Both evenings of the symposium will be followed by a reception, a book
display and signing, and an opportunity to meet the speakers.
An exhibit in the WSU Vancouver Library titled "Boarding School
Generations: Image and Experience at Chemawa Indian School, 1880 -
Present" will accompany the symposium. The exhibit, curated by
Jacqueline Peterson and Linda Edwards, will run March 24 - May 7. The
exhibit of books, photographs, objects and memorabilia about Chemawa
Indian School includes rare photographs and diaries of Edwin L.
Chalcraft held by Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections at WSU
Pullman; mid-20th century Chemawa yearbooks from Archives and Special
Collections, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University; and
objects and art assembled by students and faculty from Chemawa Indian
School today.
The "Boarding School Generations" exhibit also features a panel display
of photographs and documents of three generations of the Paul Family and
a computer station with access to WSU's Plateau Portal, a new web-based
archival and museum collections partnership with tribes in the
Northwest. If you plan to visit, look for the most up-do-date library
hours at http://library.vancouver.wsu.edu/library-hours.
"Boarding Schools Generations" is sponsored by the College of Liberal
Arts; ASWSU and the History, Anthropology and Diversity Clubs at WSU
Vancouver; the Museum of Anthropology; the Tribal Liaison Office and The
Plateau Center for American Indian Studies at WSU Pullman; and WSU
Libraries.
WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the
134th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205. Parking is available at
parking meters or in the Blue Daily Pay lot for $3.
Contact Info: * Jacqueline Peterson, Department of History, 503-546-9644
jpeterson1@vancouver.wsu.edu
* Carolyn Nestor Long, College of Liberal Arts, 360-546-9737,
coelong@vancouver.wsu.edu
* Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9601,
brenda_alling@vancouver.wsu.edu